Day 1 of 12 Days of Guitarists goes to Jeff George of Harlot

Today we are starting our 12 Days of Guitarists and we are pleased to bring you the amazingly talented Jeff George as our Day 1! Jeff George was hand picked by Sebastian Bach to be his new guitarist in September 2012. He went on to play and tour with Sebastian until earlier this year when he directed his full attention to his new band Harlot. You can read our interview with Jeff George as he explained more about how Harlot began here.

Jeff not only is a blazin shredder on the guitar but he is also a talented composer, producer and songwriter. He has everyone in excitement as to what Harlot has in store for us. I am excited to hear Jeff‘s shredding and his fierce solos on the Harlot album. He is spectacular and it is no surprise that we will select him as our first feature on our 12 Days of Guitarists. We had a chance to catch up Jeff about his guitars and we are pleased to share it with you here:

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Music Junkie Press: What is your favorite guitar to use?

Jeff: Wow.. This is a very tough question, so I’ll give you a few of my favs.. I have a pretty crazy guitar collection.. not quite as wild as it use to be, but its still pretty damn wild! But here are my current top 5.

5) – Original Brian Moore Guitars – Cinnamon Jeff George Signature model C-90. This guitar has been with me for over 10 years now. It has been all over the world many times and still looks, plays and sounds as good as it did on day one. Many many recordings with this guitar as well. Pat Cummings and Brian Moore made some of the best guitars on the planet!

4) – 1980 Gibson Flying V – Black. This was the last year of the 70’s lightweight Flying V’s.. and this one just kills. Super light, super resonant and fucking rock n roll all the way. You can feel every chord you play vibrating back against you with this guitar. Amazing!

3) – Ernie Ball Music Man EVH – Eddie’s first real signature model guitar, and they are amazing. I immediately transport back to being 16, when I first held one of these guitars, so every time I pick mine up its an awesome feeling. And .. it’s a Pink one.. Thats Cool!

2) – Original 1970 Fender Telecaster – Blonde – This guitar again has been with me a long long time. Its so light that I use to ask my tech all the time where my guitar was.. and he would say “its on you dude”..haha.. but its so light I can’t even feel it on me. Sounds like a real Tele should. The Telecaster is the most honest guitar around and that guitar makes me remember that every time I play it. Could throw it off the top of a building and it’ll still tear your face off. That guitar is never far away from me.

1) – Custom ESP Vintage Plus – White – This has been my main guitar now for about the last 2 years. It’s a standard ESP vintage plus, but I customized it with the things that I need. Its been an incredible workhorse and was the main guitar I used on the Sebastian Bach tour’s as well. This is also the guitar that’s recorded 75% of the stuff on the upcoming Harlot records.. that’s right PLURAL.. It’s really cool how a guitar can start off as just a tool for your trade.. but then eventually you can’t imagine life without it.

So there you have it.. My current top 5!

Music Junkie Press: That is quite an impressive top 5! Using the Custom ESP Vintage Plus has me really excited about the Harlot album. I can only imagine the crazy rock n rolls riffs you create on that beast! What was your first guitar?

Jeff: This is an important question. Supposedly.. every guitarist is supposed to always hang on to their first guitar. So anyone reading this.. no matter what your first guitar is or was.. try to not sell it.. keep it! My first guitar was a blue sparkle Gremlin guitar.. haha, I’m not shitting you.. the company was called Gremlin. I didn’t give a fuck.. It looked cool as hell. I played that thing horribly for a solid year and then traded it in towards a George Lynch look alike copy GTX tiger .. but I check ebay and pawn shops all the time.. I will find another blue sparkle Gremlin.. and that’s a promise!

Music Junkie Press: That is so true about a guitarist’s first guitar and trying desperately to save it. Maybe one day your Gremlin will turn up in a pawnshop, hey everybody be on the lookout so we can give that blue sparkle Gremlin back to Jeff! Lastly, how about a rig rundown on your tools of the trade; strings, amp, pick ups, picks, pedals, Endorsements etc.

Jeff: My two main rigs for years were these two simple yet effective set ups.

1) Guitar – Boss tuner – Boss SD-1 – Morley Bad Horsie Wah – Modified 100 watt Marshall with a Boss DM-2 in the effects loop.

2) Guitar – Boss tuner – Ibanez TS-808 Tubescreamer – 1967 Fender Pro Reverb.

These day’s there is so much more to cover, so here is todays rig.

Guitar – Fractal MFC-101 – Boss tuner – Boss SD-1 – Boss DM-2 – Morley Bad Horsie Wah – out to amps – Modified 100 Watt Marshall / EVH III 100 watt Head / Fractal Axe FX II in the loops.

Hands down the new Fractal Axe FX II’s have helped out a ton and made life so much easier. Unbelievable! But the heart of my sound is always that one old Marshall.

My strings have always been GHS Strings since I was 16 years old.

Pickups are Dimarzio’s and I’ve been with them since I was 17.

Picks are red Dunlop Jazz III’s and Intune GP Jeff George picks.

Of course there are many other things that are in use at all times as well, so here’s a big shout out to my incredible endorsement companies. They fucking rule!